Chris Martins

December 10, 2013 –
On March 25, we'll get a never-before-heard Johnny Cash album culled from early '80s sessions with Country Music Hall of Famer Bill Sherrill. In the clip above, John Carter Cash explains that he found his father's lost recordings with the Nashville-based producer while combing through the family archives. Dubbed Out Among the Stars, the album will arrive via Columbia/Legacy and contain 12 songs (plus a digital bonus cut)."They never threw anything away," the younger Cash told the Associated Press of his parents. June Carter Cash appears on two of the unearthed songs, which also include a cameo from Waylon Jennings. "They kept everything in their lives.

December 10, 2013 –
In October, we learned of a pair of talent-stuffed compilations coming in the new year in order to benefit children in southeast India. Dubbed Sun Choir and BOATS, the sets both arrive on January 20 via Scotland's Transgressive North. Then we heard Four Tet's mesmerizing "Gillie Amma, I Love You." Now we get a similarly minimal work from Los Angeles dance destroyers YACHT dubbed "Icarus Complex."The wordless piece begins with rattling percussion and copious reverb, picks up chopped choir vocals and burbling synth, and morphs into a playful groove that ends all too soon. Enjoy that below. And revisit our earlier post for more on the project, whose proceeds fund Scottish Love in Action and which also features Rustie, No Age, Dan Deacon, Taken by Trees, Deerhoof, Califone, and Gang Gang Dance.Preview the Everything Is New film, which accompanies the compilations:

December 10, 2013 –
Britney Spears has shared the video for "Perfume," the Sia-penned ballad that nevertheless fails to inject humanity into the pop star's eighth album Britney Jean. The Joseph Kahn-directed clip, however, succeeds at injecting plenty of clutch underwear-assisted shots of Spears' actual perfume, Fantasy. The product placement ("embedding" might be more accurate) comes interspersed between shots of our vulnerable heroine doing very American things with her unfaithful beau — holding hands by a jukebox, taking in sepia sunsets over fields, lazing in flannel and lace. It's kinda like Lana Del Rey's "Ride" with pink bottles of froofy scent instead of guns, sex, or blood. Watch above, and peruse SPIN's 20 Best Pop Albums of 2013 to find out what did make the cut.

December 10, 2013 –
Before they were hipster-skewering comedic geniuses, the star creators of Portlandia were (are) DIY music-makers, which means every new season of the IFC show brings with it the possibility of excellent artist cameos. Carrie Brownstein and Fred Armisen can be seen below announcing the forthcoming fourth installment of the beloved series, and a press release has arrived as well, enumerating the many (many) guest appearances fans can look forward to.Portlandia Season 4 kicks off Thursday, February 27 and will feature for the first time such music luminaries as: Queens of the Stone Age's Josh Homme, Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, TV on the Radio's Tunde Adebimpe, Dead Kennedys' Jello Biafra, the Monkees' Michael Nesmith, Duff McKagan of Gun N' Roses and Velvet Revolver, singer-songwriter k.d. lang, and jazz duo Tuck and Patti. St.

December 10, 2013 –
If you've somehow missed the news, prepare to have your mind bottled — Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues hits theaters on December 18. Better yet, in honor of the occasion, we can now hear Will Ferrell's flute-wielding Ron Burgundy go toe-to-toe musically with one of this year's biggest stars, Robin Thicke. Upping the ante one notch further still, they cover "Ride Like the Wind" by '80s icon Christopher Cross.For the Blurred Lines singer's part, he actually knocks it out of the park, making the case for an entire album of yacht rock remakes siphoned through the body of a blue-eyed Marvin Gaye. Ferrell offers plenty of comedic overdubs, which range from genuinely distracting to pretty darned funny (he refers to his instrument as "three feet of polished nickel, valves and my sweet breath," to wit).

December 10, 2013 –
For children who came into consciousness in the second half of 2013, being told there was a time when Kanye West didn't give interviews is probably something like hearing that old parental chestnut about walking uphill both ways to get to school — it seems physically impossible, but there's a lesson in there somewhere. Yes, on June 18, SPIN's Album of the Year Yeezus arrived, and its author broke his media silence in a very big way. West initially made headlines for declaring that he is a god (see: "I Am a God") and perhaps he took note of the reaction, because the rapper spent the next six months comparing himself to different people who managed to change the course of the world. 'Ye has gone to a lot of trouble to fit into some very big shoes, so we thought we'd help him out with the rest of the outfit.

December 10, 2013 –
Los Angeles producer Dillon Francis surprised fans this year with a transcendent little breakup song called "Without You," a collaboration with Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs that found the man who once drew dicks all over his hometown tapping into some very relatable feelings. Today, December 10, Mad Decent releases the Without You Remixes EP, a set that tests just how universal those sentiments are by flipping the beat seven distinct ways.Kicking it off is Francis' own "The Rebirth," which he describes as a "huge ass big roomy remix ...

December 9, 2013 –
The Bob Marley estate has sued a chicken fingers chain for adopting the phrase "One Love" as its trademark. The lawsuit was filed on Friday, December 6, in a Massachusetts U.S. district court by 56 Hope Road — the Bahamas-based company run by Robert Nesta Marley's children and widow, Rita — against Raising Cane's, a restaurant headquartered in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with locations in a handful of states.While the latter claims no affiliation otherwise to the legacy of the late, great Reggae artist, they've been using the words in question since late 2001 on their menus, merchandise, and other promotional materials. Below, Louisiana cheerleaders can be seen chanting "One Love," which of course is the name of one of Marley's most well-known songs.

December 9, 2013 –
The imprisoned members of Pussy Riot may be released early, according to a Russian paper referencing an amnesty bill submitted to Parliament by President Vladimir Putin himself. NPR cites "Kremlin-friendly daily Izvestia" as breaking the news that Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Maria Alekhina would be included in the legislation, which is meant to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the Russian Constitution, adopted on December 12, 1993.The bill itself does not name names, says NPR, though it refers to the release of non-violent offenders including women who have children — both of the jailed Pussy Rioters are mothers, and their two-year sentence for staging a "Punk Prayer" protest at Moscow's primary cathedral wraps in March.

December 9, 2013 –
The Tough Alliance member Eric Berglund has returned to his CEO moniker to release a new single, "Whorehouse," backed by an unexpected cover of Kanye West's Chief Keef/Bon Iver team-up "Hold My Liquor." The two-song set arrives via the Swede's own Sincerely Yours label, and both tracks can be heard below. Co-produced by Team Rockit, "My Liquor" is a darkly bursting reimagining that echoes with choral gorgeousness and experimental production à la Animal Collective. It's a brief but strange cover of that poignant Yeezus moment, which helped make West's latest SPIN's Album of the Year. Meanwhile, "Whorehouse" as a gleefully bounding mass of pitch-warped vocals and pop prettiness — think the Knife meets Beach Boys. CEO's upcoming album Wonderland, the follow-up to 2010 solo debut White Magic, gets a February 4 U.S. release via Modular.